Nearly 55 million people face hunger in West and Central Africa
Soaring prices have helped fuel a food crisis in West and Central Africa, where nearly 55 million people will struggle to feed themselves in the coming months, U.N. humanitarian agencies warned on Friday.
Due to the food shortages, malnutrition is alarmingly high © Mena Today
Soaring prices have helped fuel a food crisis in West and Central Africa, where nearly 55 million people will struggle to feed themselves in the coming months, U.N. humanitarian agencies warned on Friday.
The number facing hunger during the June-August lean season has quadrupled over the last five years, they said, noting that economic challenges such as double-digit inflation and stagnating local production had become major drivers of the crisis, beyond recurrent conflicts in the region.
Among the worst-affected countries are Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Mali, where around 2,600 people in northern areas are likely to experience catastrophic hunger, said the World Food Programme, U.N. children's agency UNICEF, and the Food and Agriculture Organization in a joint statement.
"The time to act is now. We need all partners to step up ... to prevent the situation from getting out of control," said Margot Vandervelden, WFP's acting regional director for West Africa.
Due to the food shortages, malnutrition is alarmingly high, the agencies said, estimating that 16.7 million children under the age of five are acutely malnourished across West and Central Africa.
The region's heavy dependence on food imports has tightened the squeeze, particularly for countries battling high inflation such as Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.
Policies should be introduced to boost and diversify local food production "to respond to the unprecedented food and nutrition insecurity," said Robert Guei, the FAO's Sub-regional Coordinator for West Africa.
By Ngouda Dione
Related
Politics
Zelenskiy says some N.Korean officers already deployed alongside Russians in Ukraine
Thousands of North Korean troops are being prepared to fight on Russia's behalf in Ukraine and some North Korean officers have already been deployed there, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday.
Politics
NATO will not be intimidated by Russia's threats, Rutte says at Ukraine mission HQ
NATO will not be cowed by Russian threats but keep up its strong support of Kyiv, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on his first visit to the alliance's Ukraine mission in Wiesbaden, set to take over the coordination of military aid from the U.S.